On your own computer

The simplest way to run nodwyn is as an app on the computer you're sitting at.

nodwyn app              # a window (a webview build) or your default browser
nodwyn app --browser    # your browser, even in a webview build
nodwyn app --no-open    # print the launch address and open nothing

nodwyn app shows the console and starts a daemon inside the same process if none is running. You can set up the model and unlock the keychain in the console; there's no terminal setup step first.

What it does depends on what it finds:

• If a daemon is already running, for example one started at login, the app attaches to it. Closing the window leaves its tasks running.
• If there's none, the app serves tasks itself on the standard socket. Closing it ends those tasks. Their conversations are kept, and they resume later like any task after a shutdown.

While the app runs, nodwyn tui and nodwyn ui can attach to it, since it listens on the same socket a daemon would.

The page the app opens pairs itself with a one-time ticket carried in the address after the #. It never goes to a server, it's removed from the address bar at once, and it's valid for a minute. On a computer other people log in to, pair with the code the app prints to its log instead, using nodwyn ui --no-open, because another user could read the ticket in the process list for the moment the browser starts.

The window

A webview build, make build-webview or the macOS app from make app, opens its own window. The console in it is the same page. The window adds three things and nothing else: a native folder chooser for Add a folder, system notifications when a task needs you (opt-in in Settings), and opening links in your default browser. None of them reads a file the page names.

Keeping it running

A daemon that the app, nodwyn tui or line mode started stops when its window or terminal closes, and your scheduled tasks stop with it. To keep one running, have it start when you log in:

nodwyn startup on       # or Settings › General › While you're away › Start at login
nodwyn startup          # says whether it's on, and which nodwyn it runs
nodwyn startup off

On Linux that writes a systemd user unit, and on macOS a launchd agent. The app then uses that daemon and leaves it running when the window closes. A daemon started at login has no terminal to ask for the keychain's passphrase, so it starts locked. Home says when that holds a scheduled run back, and unlocking there lets the run go ahead.

If you'd like desktop notices when no window is open, Settings › General › While you're away › Desktop notices from the daemon turns them on. They say only "nodwyn needs your answer", never what the task is.

On a phone

A phone can use the console of a computer that serves other devices, which is what the server page sets up. Served over https, the console is also an installable web app: Safari's Share › Add to Home Screen on an iPhone, or Chrome's Install app on Android, puts it on the Home Screen, where it opens full screen. Turn on Settings › This browser › Notifications in it to be told when a task waits for an answer.

Notices arrive while the app is open or in the background. A notice while the app is closed isn't built yet.